7 names who could replace Dave Hart as Tennessee’s athletic director

Tennessee’s search for an athletic director won’t be nearly as challenging as when Dave Hart was hired by the school in 2011.

Hart and Tennessee both had to take a leap of faith. Hart agreed to lead a school with financial woes and subpar athletics, namely football. Tennessee was forced to hire an administrator who had a checkered past at Florida State and couldn’t secure an athletic director position upon his departure. Instead, he was an assistant athletic director at Alabama, which just happens to be one of the Vols’ most hated rivals. That never set well with some fans.

This time around should be much different. The Vols are much better in football – which is always key – and much better financially. Here are some names to keep an eye on the Vols look for their next athletic director.

David Blackburn

This seems like a slam-dunk hire. Blackburn held various roles at Tennessee, including associate athletic director and director of football operations. He left Tennessee to become the athletic director at UT-Chattanooga. The Mocs have been on fire ever since.

UT Chattanooga AD David Blackburn is a former Tennessee assistant AD and he oversees a strong Southern Conference program. COURTESY CHATTANOOGA ATHLETICS

Information provided by UTC shows that the Mocs became the first school in the 100-plus year history of the Southern Conference to win football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball championships in the same year (the 2015-16 season). UTC also won titles in volleyball and wrestling while leading the Southern Conference in attendance in football and men’s and women’s basketball for the second year in a row. One of the strongest criticisms of Hart was that he didn’t produce strong non-revenue sports.

John Currie

(Editor’s note: Currie was added as a potential candidate after the story originally was published.) Currie, who is the athletic director at Kansas State, is a superstar fundraiser. He also has led an athletic program to championship success, as K-State won or shared Big 12 championships in football, men’s basketball and baseball in the 2012–13 academic year. He was honored as one of four 2013 Under Armour Athletic Directors of the Year by the National Association of Directors of Athletics.

Currie is a former executive associate athletic director at Tennessee, where he received his masters degree. Currie also was instrumental in hiring football coach Lane Kiffin and basketball coach Bruce Pearl. While neither hire ended particularly well, both were considered successes before their departures.

Charles Davis

Davis is a former Vols defensive back who was born in Elizabethton, Tenn., but lived most of his childhood in New York. Clearly, though, he’s a Vol through and through. He’s often on talk radio in Knoxville and still keeps close tabs on Tennessee, as well as close friendships with several former Vols.

Davis has a strong career in broadcasting, so it’s unclear if he’d want to walk away from that. But he recently said at a speaking function that he thinks the Vols need to hire someone with ties to Tennessee. Was that hint that he may want the job?

Davis isn’t just a talking head. He should have a working knowledge of how to run an athletic department. He was an assistant athletic director at Stanford and the director of the U.S. Olympic Training Center. Fundraising likely wouldn’t be an issue as Davis is known for being engaging and likable.

Chris Fuller

Fuller currently is a senior associate athletic director at Tennessee. He has proven to be an excellent fundraiser and done, well, just about everything else. He’s handled marketing, sales, ticket operations and broadcasting duties. He may not be the most well-known candidate on this list, but he should be thought of as one of the top candidates.

If there’s one thing that may work against Fuller, it’s that he was present during some stressful times at Tennessee. Those times were under Hart’s direction, but Fuller was there. Through no fault of his own, he may not receive universal endorsement. Still, he’d be a fantastic selection.

Phillip Fulmer

It seems unlikely the Vols would go in this direction. First, it’s not nearly as en vogue to hire former coaches to be athletic directors as it once was. Schools are most often looking for candidates with business backgrounds in order to guarantee fundraising success.

Fulmer, though, has been involved in several business ventures both during and after his coaching career and he’s been a consultant with East Tennessee State’s athletic department. Fulmer’s interest level also would be a question. He’s seemingly enjoying retirement, so he may not have interest in the job.

Mark Ingram

Ingram surely would love to be tabbed as the next Tennessee athletic director considering he’s been charged with the task of reintroducing UAB’s football program after it was cut.

Ingram is a former Tennessee football player who was a star in fundraising and served as the school’s senior associate athletic director. He’s also worked at Georgia and Missouri, so he has a firm grasp of the SEC. But the question is if his résumé is strong enough to warrant the AD role at Tennessee.

Peyton Manning

Well, Manning does have some free time on his hands and he’d probably be successful at most anything he chose to do in this stage of his life. But if he wants to be involved in the business side of football, the NFL makes much more sense. Deals like John Elway signed with the Denver Broncos usually include part-ownership. In financial terms, that’s the gift that keeps on giving – forever.

My selection:

Blackburn tops this list, which was arranged alphabetically. He also tops my list of top candidates. Blackburn is bright, affable, proven and has a personable, down-to-earth personality. Tennessee also would be a destination job that he’d be proud to hold for a long time. That would bring stability to Tennessee, which it has been lacking on many levels.